On Motivation
Motivation is the spark, not the fire. Waiting for it to return before acting is how capable people quietly slide from expansion to shrinking. Boaz reframes the question from "do I feel like doing this?" to "is this action expanding me or shrinking me?" — and builds the case for structure over inspiration.
What this edition is about
Motivation starts things. It does not sustain them, and treating it as fuel is how capable people end up waiting for a feeling that has no schedule.
Boaz's substitution is a better question. Instead of do I feel like doing this, ask: is this action expanding me or shrinking me? That question can be answered on a bad morning, and it points to the same answer whether or not the spark showed up.
The rest is structure — commitments, times, and people that make the action happen without requiring an emotional precondition.
- Motivation is the spark, not the fire — it starts, it doesn't sustain.
- Waiting to feel ready is how expansion turns into slow shrinking.
- Better question: is this action expanding me or shrinking me?
- Structure produces the behaviour that inspiration only promises.
Anyone whose consistency depends on how they feel that morning.
This page is a summary. The full edition — with the stories and the detail — lives on Substack.
Read “On Motivation”On this edition
Stop making the action conditional on the feeling. Put it on a schedule, attach it to a commitment involving another person, and reduce the decision to a yes or no you already made. Motivation shows up for the start; structure is what handles the eleven months after it.
Ask whether the action expands you or shrinks you. It's answerable on the worst morning of the week, it doesn't depend on mood, and it gives the same answer that your motivated self would have given — which is exactly the point.